Leah Sousa (Unsolved Murder)

In the early hours of September 1st 1990 a person or persons unknown entered the Sousa family home in Cumberland Beach, Ontario, Canada. 13 year old Leah was assaulted in the living room before being dragged to the yard and killed. Her mother Lora was beaten and left for dead, but miraculously survived. Lora’s nine month old baby son was left unharmed in his cot. Despite police believing Lora saw her attacker’s face, the extent of her head injuries means she has no memories of that night. Leah’s murder is the biggest case in Ontario investigative history and, even thirty years on, can still be solved.

Sources: For a full list of sources please see the Facebook page

Newspapers.com
The North Bay Nugget 
05/09/90
14/09/90
The Windsor Bay Star
14/09/90
Fort McMurray Today 
14/09/90
28/09/90
The Gazette
04/09/90
The Winnipeg Sun
04/09/90
The Expositor
05/09/90
02/01/91

CANADAUNSOLVEDhttps://www.canadaunsolved.com › ...UNSOLVED: The Unsolved Murder of Leah Sousa (1990 - Ontario)

True Crime Divahttps://truecrimediva.com › leah-sali...Who savagely raped, murdered 13-year-old Leah Sousa in 1990?

Find a Gravehttps://www.findagrave.com › leah-...Leah Salina Sousa (1977-1990) - Memorials

barrie.ctvnews.cahttps://barrie.ctvnews.ca › opp-conti...OPP continues search for killer 25 years after Leah Sousa murdered

Simcoe.comhttps://www.simcoe.com › news-storyWho killed Leah Sousa? Murdered Cumberland Beach teen was ' ...

Canadian Crimeopediacanadiancrimeopedia.comSousa, Leah – Canadian Crimeopedia

Muskoka Region Newshttps://www.muskokaregion.com › ...COLD CASE: Search for child killer continues 27 years after Leah Sousa ...

Toronto Starwww.thestar.com'Women would intuitively fear a person like this.' A lot is known ...

https://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/2008/09/04/tip_revives_1990_murder_case.html

https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/murder-most-forgotten-a-cold-case-the-victim-can-t-remember-1.479045

https://www.thestar.com/amp/news/ontario/2008/09/04/tip_revives_1990_murder_case.html

https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/murder-most-forgotten-a-cold-case-the-victim-can-t-remember-1.479045

https://www.mykawartha.com/opinion-story/3708424-the-most-sophisticated-crime-technology-will-never-replace-a-tip/

https://read.amazon.co.uk/sample/B013F6L9K0?f=2&l=en_GB&rid=7Y2W0MJG99MC8RVMKP54&sid=258-4788530-9096843&ref_=litb_

https://www.orilliamatters.com/police-beat/opp-seek-help-locating-missing-orillia-man-3884343

https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000014412624/Barry-Ruhl-A-Viable-Suspect

https://murderpedia.org/male.M/m/mcgray-michael-wayne.htm

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5209623

https://mycrimelibrary.com/michael-wayne-mcgray-serial-killer/

https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Paul_Bernardo_and_Karla_Homolka

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5209623

Mitochondrial DNA - National Human Genome Research Institute

Promos:

Transcript

Leah Sousa

This episode deals with a crime committed against a child. Please exercise self-care when choosing to listen.

The community of Cumberland Beach lies near the shore of Lake Couchiching, Orillia, in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada. The town lies 15 km north of central Ontario City and 135 km north of Toronto. Orillia had been the inspiration for a series of short stories by Stephen Leacock first published in 1912, titled “Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town”. They were satires on small town life with whimsical characters engaged in everyday events told with humour and affection. In 1990 Orillia, now with a population of 24000, was in many ways still the archetypal sleepy Ontario town. 

36 year old Lora Sousa together with her thirteen year old daughter Leah and nine month old son lived in a detached house on Beachview Avenue, a stone's throw from the water’s edge. The property had a black roof with white wooden panelled walls and an adjoining garage. The house was a bungalow, with all rooms on the ground floor. Lora and Leah had moved to the residence a couple of years earlier from Oakville in Toronto. A neighbour of the Sousa family described Beachview Avenue as a very quiet neighbourhood. 

Over the summer of 1990, the Sousas took an extended holiday at a relative’s house and returned to Beachview Avenue at the end of August, in time for Labor Day, which is during the first weekend in September. 

The teenage Leah was looking forward to going on a trip with her friend Sarah’s family to the Canadian National Exhibition. This is an annual event staged at Exhibition Place in Toronto. It runs from mid August through to the first week in September and celebrates Canadian history and culture. Unfortunately for Leah, plans for her excursion were scuppered when Sarah’s mother realised she had double booked. She had already asked her son's friend to accompany the family to the exhibition. This meant there wasn’t enough room for Leah in the car. To make things worse for the teenager, as part of the weekend Sarah had planned on staying the night at the Sousas’ prior to the visit. This too was cancelled. Disappointed, Leah just had to make the best of the extended holiday weekend.  

When the thirteen year old closed her eyes on Friday 31 August the only other people in the house were her mother Lora and her baby brother. Leah often slept next to her mother but that night she decided to sleep on the coach in the living room. Ontario was still enjoying some late summer heat so Leah thought she would be better able to stay cool this way. Lora went to sleep in her bedroom with the baby nearby in his cot.

At 10.30 the next morning a neighbourhood friend of Leah’s called at the Sousas’ house. After receiving no reply at the front door the young girl walked around to the back yard. There, lying on the ground, covered in blood, she discovered the battered body of Leah. She had been savagely beaten around the head, though no murder weapon was visible nearby. A pathology report would later confirm that Leah had been sexually assaulted before death and had died from massive head injuries. The Ontario provincial police (OPP) arrived promptly and with a sense of foreboding went inside the house. Lying on the living room floor they found Lora Sousa. She too had visible head injuries but unbelievably was still clinging to life. Police found the 9 month old baby unharmed in his cot. 

The details of that night remain shrouded in mystery and yet the answers to this disturbing and cowardly attack seem agonisingly close.

Persons Unknown is a true crime podcast dedicated to unsolved murders and disappearances. The podcast is based in Wales, UK and covers cases from Wales, the rest of the UK and the wider world. New episodes are released every other Monday. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Persons Unknown Podcast. For a list of sources please see the episode notes on your app. If you enjoy the podcast please give us a review and you can help others get to hear about Persons Unknown by sharing and recommending on social media. Thank you so much for listening. Now back to this week’s case.

Leah Salina Sousa was born on June 7th 1977 in Oakville, Ontario.  She was brought up by her mother, Lora and from what I can tell Leah had little or no contact with her father. Emily Knight, who was ten at the time of the murder, is the younger sister of Leah’s friend Sarah. (Sadly Sarah has since passed away from cancer). In 2020, on local news website Simcoe.com Emily says that Leah had a big, bright smile that would never fail to light up a room. She goes on to describe Leah as a kind and sweet person. Leah’s mother Lora told CTV news in 2010 that her daughter had a bubbly personality with a great sense of humour. At the time of her death Leah had just graduated from Ardtrea Public School and was due to start high school in a week's time.

In 2015, Lora Sousa wrote a book about her daughter’s murder titled “Poetic Justice: The Search for Leah’s Killers. It’s written in verse, and is interspersed with prayers and religious thoughts. From what I can tell Lora is a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Due to its non-linear style it does take a little deciphering. I had to read it twice to make sure I understood it and even then there are some details I’m a little unsure of. Within the pages of the short book, Lora mentions some of the significant events she and her daughter experienced in the years preceding the murder. It’s fair to say that, for one so young, Leah went through some emotionally difficult times.

In 1987, when the Sousas were still living in Oakville, Toronto, a knock on the family's front door turned then ten year old Leah’s life upside down. It was her 19 year old half-brother who said he wanted to get to know Leah and establish some sort of relationship with her. The pair got on together and everything seemed to be going well, when according to Lorathe half brother very abruptly decided to sever all ties with Leah.  The rejection Leah experienced devastated her. Lora also says that any attempts by Leah to make contact with her father were met with indifference. 

Leah fell into a dark depression and refused to go to school. The obvious pain and hurt Leah was experiencing was a motivating factor for the family’s move to the lakeside property in Cumberland Beach, Orillia. The hope was that the change in scenery would do both mother and daughter good. 

The move did not resolve Leah’s issue with school and she continued to play truant. A teacher from the school was designated as a link person and started to bring Leah homework to prevent her from falling too far behind. Lora became friendly with the teacher and went on to have a sexual relationship with this man. The teacher left his wife and eventually moved in with Lora and Leah. It wasn't long before Lora fell pregnant. 

In her book Lora says that her partner wanted her to get an abortion but she did not want to and was determined to go ahead with the pregnancy. Eventually Lora split up with her boyfriend, although he then claimed to have a nervous breakdown and both she and Leah did continue to have contact with him. He attempted to emotionally blackmail Lora into an abortion and even threatened to take his own life if she went through with the pregnancy. Lora refused to be bullied and had the baby in December 1989. The boyfriend returned to his wife but even then continued to find ways to maintain a presence in Lora and Leah’s lives, though he only saw his baby about four or five times. A month before the attack Lora asked him for $300 child support but he refused to pay. Reading Lora’s book it seems she had a very complex relationship with this man. 

During the twelve months or so before the murder Lora’s brother Carlos, known by family and friends as Chuck, also stayed at Lora’s house for prolonged periods.

On the 1st September 1990, after Lora was found alive, she was rushed to hospital where she remained for three weeks. The name of the hospital was not released to the public as police feared the attacker may try and track her down. Investigators were sure that Lora had seen the face of her attacker but when she regained consciousness she could remember nothing of that night. On September 28th, Constable Roger Tass of the OPP was quoted in the Fort McMurray Today newspaper as saying that Lora would probably never remember the attack. Doctors treating Lora said her memories were not simply being suppressed, rather the head injuries she had sustained meant they had been neurologically destroyed. 

While still recovering in hospital Lora said she would be willing to try anything to unlock her memories in order to find the truth. Over the years Lora has exhausted a whole host of methods to regain what she remembers of that night, including visiting seven different psychics, undergoing two hypnosis sessions a week for 6 months, and even taking Sodium Amytal and Sodium Pentothal, or Truth Serum. The most extensive treatment was carried out by Dr Michael Persinger from the neuroscience group of Laurentian University, in Sudbury, Ontario. The OPP put up the money to cover this.

Dr Persinger administered weak electromagnetic fields to Lora’s temporal lobes, which are key in memory recall. Unfortunately the experiments carried out by Dr Persinger did not produce any fruit and he concluded that Lora would never remember what happened on that night. In a CTV news piece in January 2010 Dr Persinger said human memory is not recorded instantly. It takes up to half an hour for memories to be stored and in Lora’s case she was not given this opportunity. He described it as akin to someone switching off a computer without saving the information on the screen.

Following the attack Lora continued to suffer from blurred vision, partial hearing loss and spells of dizziness. 

The initial investigation into Leah’s murder and the attack on Lora was undertaken by the local Orillia OPP. They were assisted by the Criminal Investigation Branch in Toronto and twelve detectives from the District Crime Unit in Barrie, 37 km away. The Orillia OPP were not used to dealing with homicides. The last murder to occur in Orillia was in April 1986. On that occasion a 29 year old woman had been stabbed but that case was solved relatively quickly. Already, solving Leah Sousa’s murder was shaping up to be a very difficult task.

With Lora unable to shed light on the course of events that night, police had to rely on finding other witnesses from the community who had seen or heard anything out of the ordinary. As it was a holiday weekend, numerous tourists had been in the area and subsequently left to return to their homes, so many were unable to be traced.

Although it does not appear to have been widely reported at the time, the Toronto Star did state on the 4th September 1990 that neighbours heard shouting coming from the Sousa residence on the night of August 31st to September 1st, but apparently did not think anything of it. They chalked it down to being the result of a raucous party, of which there had been a few in the neighbourhood over the last couple of weeks.

Police believe the assailant entered the house sometime after midnight, most probably between 1.30 and 3.00am. In her book, Lora Sousa gives the timings as between 1.30 and 4.30am. It was theorised that Leah was sexually assaulted in the living room and then dragged outside into the yard. She was killed where she was found, which begs the question why she was not killed inside the home. It seems awfully risky to have taken Leah outside, where it would have been easier to attract the attention of neighbours. The attack on Lora had started in the bedroom but she was found beaten and unconscious in the living room. A smashed portable phone handset was close to where she lay. Either Lora had attempted to reach the phone to call for help or it was destroyed as a preemptive measure by the attacker.

Researching this case I came across some reports from people who claim to be Orillia locals who have shared details about the crime scene on internet forums that have not been released by police. I'm not going to mention specifics because I can't confirm they are true, and if they are true there is a reason police have not publically released them. To summarise, they detail the placement of the mother Lora’s body and describe something that was allegedly done to Leah's body after her death. 

Following the attack the local community was on edge. One local resident, Christine, who lived a few blocks away from the Sousas, told the North Bay Nugget that people were sleeping with baseball bats next to their beds. Women were afraid to enter their houses or cars alone and parents were leaving work early to ensure they were there to pick up their children from school. 

The police tried to downplay the risk of another attack, saying that what had happened to the Sousas had been an isolated incident. Constable Roger Tass went further, to say police believed the attacker was known to the family. This followed initial reports from Carlos DeSousa, Lora’s brother, who was quoted in The Expositor on September 5th 1990 as saying that it must have been someone Lora knew as there was no sign of a break in. The implication was that Lora had invited the attacker into the house.

Lora, Leah and the baby had spent the month of August staying with Lora’s sister in Madoc, which lies 200 km east of Orillia. The attack happened on only the second night they were back at the house. This fact does seem to lend itself to the theory that the attacker or attackers knew the small family were back at the property after a long absence and had waited for this opportunity to act. 

Interestingly, less than two weeks later, Carlos DeSousa told the Windsor Bay Star that he now believed the attack had been carried out by a stranger. There was evidence that the back door window had been smashed and the intruder had then reached their arm in to open the door from the inside.  In most reports I've read,this seems to be confirmed as the way the intruder entered the house.   Rumours began to spread that the assailant was a stranger, or even a gang with no connections to the Sousa family. With no arrests made the community became more unsettled. 

In interviews to the press, police continued to say that they suspected the attacker or attackers were known to Lora and familiar with the local area. They believed the attacker knew Lora was a vulnerable target because of her young baby and suspected that she was the focus of the attack. It was their opinion that something must have gone amiss and the attacker’s attention was switched to Leah. It is worth noting that reports make no mention of Lora being sexually assaulted.

The murder weapon has never been found but is believed to be a hard metal object, like a piece of piping or tyre iron. This was brought to the scene by Leah's killer. Both the weapon and the killer would have been covered in blood. No clothing from the attacker has ever been found. 

A couple of months after the attack a young lad came forward to say he had overheard two teenage boys talking about Leah's murder. This was only an hour or so after Leah’s body had been found. The witness said he heard one of the teenagers say he knew who had killed Leah. The witness did not recognise the boys and did know their names. I am unsure if these boys were ever traced.

Over the three decades since the attack the OPP have conducted 1500 interviews. Leah’s file is the largest in OPP investigative history. The OPP have completed numerous searches of properties in Orillia and investigated thousands of tips. There have been arrests but, as far as I can find out, no-one has ever been charged with Leah’s murder. There have, however, been a few developments.

It is known that a bloody shoe print was discovered on the Sousa kitchen floor believed to belong to the murderer. It showed a tread from a size 8 or 9 (it is sometimes stated as a size 9 or 10), Nike leather all weather tennis shoe. This information was shared in a 2010 CTV news documentary covering the case. Lora believes this print was overlooked by police during the early days of the investigation. 

There has never been any mention of fingerprints found at the scene which suggest the assailant or assailants wore gloves. Many sources claim that no DNA was left by the killer at the scene. This is despite the fact that a post mortem determined Leah had been raped. In her book, Lora Sousa says that her daughter was raped both vaginally and annally. The fact that no DNA was recovered suggests that either the attacker did not ejaculate or they used an object during the assault. 

In her book Lora Sousa also states that a bite mark was found on Leah's body. The bite mark is believed to belong to Lora. She obviously has no memory of the event but thinks she was forced  to do this after Leah's life was threatened. She believes this was done deliberately to mislead the police and disrupt the investigation. 

In September 2008, the Toronto Star article reported that in August of that year a new tip came into the OPP telling police to look for the murder weapon in ditches that ran along the side of Highway 11, which runs right through Orilla. OPP officers standing shoulder to shoulder searched a specific 140m stretch of shrubland on the side of the road. The police never reported finding anything and it is not known who this tip came from. Later that year two people were charged with wasting police time in the investigation into Leah's murder. I presume that this tip was a hoax. 

That same month the Toronto Star confirmed that standard DNA was not available to test in this case but that evidence found at the sense was being tested at a lab in Pennsylvania for mitochondrial DNA. This technique is used when there is very little biological material to test.   According to genome.gov, mitochondrial DNA is the chromosome found inside the cellular organelles called mitochondria. A person inherits their mitochondrial DNA from their mother. The evidence sent to the lab may have been the clothes worn by  Leah or Lora when they were attacked. No further information regarding this has been released.

2008 also saw a high profile billboard campaign launched by the OPP along Highway 11 from Barnes in east Ontario to Cumberland Beach. A large picture of Leah was displayed with the words: “Do you know who Killed Leah Sousa?”, prominently displayed. It was hoped this would keep Leah’s unsolved murder in the public’s consciousness.

Lora Sousa has continued to campaign for justice on behalf of her daughter. In 1996 she tried to have Leah’s murder featured on Unsolved Mysteries but was told by producers that the case was too old for them to cover. She then wrote to Oprah Winfrey in 1998 but never received a reply. In 2000 Lora contacted “America’s Most Wanted” and even managed to get the OPP to say they would cooperate with the television program on an episode about Leah's case. America's Most Wanted expressed no interest in getting involved. 

There have been a number of suspects linked to Leah's murder due to similarities in their known crimes and geographical connections. 

Four months after the attack at the Sousa house, in early 1991, 23 year old Brian Timothy Elson from Brechin, Ontario, stabbed to death Sandra Bannister. Brechin is just 23 km east of Orillia. 17 year old Sandra was attacked just after dawn on News Year's Day. She died of her wounds in the hospital. Elson was arrested and charged with second degree murder the next day. Elson spent just 6 years in prison for the murder. On release he was monitored closely by authorities for a further three years. In 2010 an investigative journalist from Canadian Television’s W5 current affairs show, Sue Sgambati, traced Elson down and asked him about Leah Sousa’s murder. Elson said he had nothing to do with it and that the police had spoken to him about it and had even arrested him once over the crime. Elson said he was released without charge. The TV news report by W5 also said that at the time of Leah’s murder, Elson’s grandmother lived very close to the Sousas and that police believed Elson was staying in Cumberland Beach on that night. Elson denied this, declaring he knew 60 people that would back him up in saying that he was nowhere near the location at the time of the murder.

I can find out very little about the murder of Sandra Bannister or about Brian Elson. A 53 year old man from Orillia by the name of Brian Elson was reported as missing by the OPP in 2021. I presume it is the same man, as the age correlates. The missing poster said Elson was last seen on Tuesday June 15th that year near Tudhope park in Orillia. The OPP were asking for the public's help in tracking him down. I can find no further information about the matter.

In October 2014, retired OPP officer Barry Ruhl wrote a book titled “Viable Suspect: The story of multiple murders and how a police force’s reach proved too short for Canada's most notorious cold case”. In the book, Ruhl sets out a theory that many unsolved murders going back as far as  1959 can be attributed to a serial killer he calls Larry Talbot. This is not the suspect’s real name, but a pseudonym given for legal reasons. He is named after the wolfman or werewolf character from various horror films.  

In 1971 Barry Rhul first came into contact with Larry Talbot when Talbot broke into Rhul’s  home in Sauble Beach and attacked his fiance. Rhul was able to overpower Talbot and arrest him. As the years passed, Rhul began to think more about the violent Talbot and began to look into him further. After researching Talbot he came to the conclusion that he could be responsible for some of Canada's most infamous cold cases. Talbot worked as a travelling salesman and was regularly in the south west of Ontario. He had ample opportunity to plan attacks and disappear from the area quickly. Victims were often discovered many km from where they were killed.

Rhul links Talbot to numerous unsolved cases. The oldest being the 1959 murder of 12 year old Lynne Harper from Vanastra, Ontario. Steven Truscott was wrongly convicted for that crime. Steven was only 14 when he was charged with the murder of his classmate. He was only acquitted by the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2007. Rhul also links Talbot to the murder of 19 year old Lydia White who went missing in 1968 from London, Ontario. Her remains were found 90km away in Norfolk county. Other unsolved murders Rhul attributes to Talbot include the following: The murder of 15 year old Jacqueline English, also from London, in 1969. Ruhl says Halton Regional Police told him that Talbot was the prime suspect in the 1973 murder of 17 year old Pauline Ivy Dudley, from Oakville. Talbot has been connected to two murders from 1982. Delia Adriano, 25 from Oakville and 25 year old Christine Prince from Toronto. The most recent murders that Ruhl links to Talbot both happened in 1992, two years after Leah Sousa was killed. They are Valerie Stevens, 19 from Toronto and 17 year old Cindy Hallaway, whose body was found near Phelpston, 40 km east of Orillia.

While Ruhl was a serving officer he could never get his superiors to take his theories about Talbot seriously. Just as Ruhl was beginning to make some traction with OPP investigators Larry Talbot died in a care home  before he could be thoroughly investigated.

Rhul first heard about the Leah Sousa case in 1992 when he attended a community meeting. When he heard the details of the case he immediately thought of Talbot as it reminded him of the way he had broken into Rhul’s own property. He contacted the team investigating Leah’s murder and the attack on Lora and they said that Talbot had been looked into and eliminated as a suspect. As Rhul’s 2014 book shows, he still suspects Talbot's involvement.

Two convicted serial killers are occasionally linked to Leah’s case. The first is Paul Bernardo from Scarborough, Ontario. Scarborough is 140 km south of Orillia on the outskirts of Toronto. Bernardo is known as the Scarborough Rapist for a series of sexual assaults carried out in the town between 1987 and 1990. 

At the time the crimes were going on an efit was released by police of the suspect and several people called to give Bernardo’s name. He gave a sample of saliva for DNA testing but unfortunately it lay untested in a police lab for another two years. In the meantime his crimes escalated to include murder.

Paul Bernardo, along with his wife Karla Homolka are commonly known as the Ken and Barbie killers. The pair sexually assaulted and murdered three teenage girls, including Homolka's own sister Tammy. They videotaped themselves committing these attacks. In 1995 Bernardo was sentenced to life without parole. Homolka was given only 12 years because of her cooperation with authorities in testifying against Bernardo. After Bernardo's crimes became public knowledge his name did occasionally appear in articles about Leah Sousa’s murder.  

From what I have read, the police do not consider him a suspect in this crime. The attack on the Sousa home does not fit with his MO. He would normally follow or stalk teenage girls or young women when he saw them walking alone. Two of the girls he killed were first anaesthetised with chemicals procured from Homolka's work. This was not the case with Leah.

A second convicted serial killer was first linked to Leah Sousa’s murder in a forum post on the website Unsolved Canada on September 23rd 2012. A user going by the name Chrisdiane said he was an ex-prison mate of Michael Wayne McGray and claimed the serial killer confessed to him that he had killed Leah Sousa.

McGray was born in 1965 in Collingwood, Ontario, but was brought up in Nova Scotia. As a child, McGray says he was beaten by his alcoholic father and was sexually abused in the care homes and reform schools where he spent much of his adolescence. When he was 20 he moved to Halifax, the capital of the province of Nova Scotia, and over the next decade was in and out of numerous mental health facilities.  

McGray was arrested in 1999 for the 1998 murders of 48 year old Joan Hicks and her 11 year old daughter Nina from Moncton, New Brunswick. While in police custody he confessed to other murders. Over the years he has been found guilty for 4 additional murders, though he claims to have been involved in up to 16 deaths. He said he would cooperate with police on these cases in return for better mental health treatment and immunity from prosecution for the crimes. The authorities refused to do a deal with McGray.

In 2010 he was moved from a high security prison to a medium security prison in British Columbia where he was now forced to share a cell. Despite repeated pleas from his cellmate Jeremy Phillips that he feared for his life, the prison authorities did not listen and McGray went on to strangle to death the 33 year old. McGray admitted to the killing and said his cellmate had done nothing wrong and he had not argued with him. He put his actions down to his urge to kill which he blamed for all his murders and violent outbursts. McGray said he has had this urge since childhood and admitted killing animals when a young boy. 

McGray is currently serving seven life sentences and is now back in a maximum security prison in Quebec.

The forum user calling himself Chrisdiane said that McGray had confessed to killing Leah Sousa in great detail. The man claimed he grew up in Vancouver and had never heard of Leah’s murder before talking with McGray.  He said he had tried to inform the authorities but because he is an ex-convict they will not take him seriously. The anonymous man said he has not reoffended since leaving prison and that he had always thought of himself as a bad person but he was nothing compared to the evil McGray. There is no easy way of finding out if anything about this claim is true. 

Lora Sousa proposes a theory in her book that her daughter's murder  may be linked to criminal activity connected to her brother's past. According to Lora, Carlos DeSousa allegedly had a history of dealing drugs. When Lora first found out about her brother's illegal activity he had offered her $400 for storing drugs in the garage. She flatly refused and flushed some drugs down the toilet. Carlos had stopped dealing drugs around twelve months before the attack and was attempting to turn his life around. I’ve attempted to look into Lora’s allegations that Carlos had been a drug dealer but I have drawn a blank and have not been able to confirm this, so please bear this in mind.

Carlos lived in the house with Lora and Leah at various periods over the twelve months before the attack. Lora thinks the family may have been targeted because of past feuds between her brother and other drug dealers. Lora says two weeks before the attack two men from Oakville made death threats against Carlos and were offering $500 for his whereabouts. One of the men went by the nickname, “China man”. She suspects that a member of her extended family, her brother-in-law, may have given these men her address.

Carlos was scared for his life following Leah’s death and at first did not want to attend her funeral as he feared he would be targeted. He did attend after police guaranteed their presence at the service. 

Lora also tells another story concerning a different brother, who had overheard two customers at his place of work talking about a hit which was going to take place in the area. The brother said that in the conversation the men described Lora and Leah, although not by name, and the house where they lived. The men even asked the brother if he knew who they were referring to. At the time the brother did not recognise that they were talking about Lora and Leah. It wasn't until three months after the murder that he remembered this happening, made the connection and reported the incident.

The police told Lora they were able to trace these men and cleared them of involvement. Lora seems sceptical and is more than a little critical of police in the early years of the investigation.

In her book Lora Sousa also talks about her ex-boyfriend, who fathered Leah's little brother. As I mentioned, according to Lora, the man, who I am deliberately not naming, did not want her to go through with the pregnancy. Lora says she was harassed by him and he became violent with her when she threatened to go to the police.

Lora goes on to say that, after the couple split, the man approached Leah on her walk home from school and tried to get her into his car. Leah refused. Lora says many of Leah's school friends waiting on the school bus witnessed the incident. 

Lora describes another strange event. After the couple had split the man returned to his wife but still would reach out to Lora from time to time. On one occasion he offered to take Lora and Leah out canoeing. Lora thought this would be good for Leah so took the offer up. Lora claims that one of the lakes he took them to that day was very quiet. He would not let either Lora or Leah wear life jackets. While out on the lake she says she felt a sense of danger and desperately looked around for witnesses. At that moment she saw some other people out on a boat. She wonders what would have happened if those people had not come along at that time and intimates that both her own and Leah's lives were in danger. 

Lora alleges that the ex-boyfriend told her that he was jealous of a boy who was dating Leah and she believes he fantasised about her. She speculates that the ex-boyfriend may have paid someone to commit the attack. Two men who lived in the area suddenly moved not long after Leah's murder. Lora says the police did look into these men but there was never enough evidence to warrant an arrest. 

These are obviously  serious allegations that Lora makes about her ex-boyfriend, which do seem to contradict her theory that Leah’s death was connected to a drug vendetta. It's important to remember that Lora’s book is a poem written as a way of processing her daughter's death. In it she explores the myriad of thoughts she has about Leah’s unsolved murder. Not all the theories she writes about can be  true, and indeed, none of them may be correct.

The house where the attack happened was repossessed and sold at a loss and Lora Sousa now lives far away from Orillia. Her quest for justice for her daughter never ceases. In the Toronto Star in 2008, Lora spoke about the sensation of constantly feeling lost in the world and said her real home should be in heaven with Leah. Knowing that she witnessed the events of that night but can’t access the memories has been torture. In a 2010 interview with Kelly Kenny of Muskoka Region news she says she has visions of someone trying to tell her who the killer is.

Although Lora was critical of police in the early years of the investigation, even making a formal complaint in 1995, in her book she singles out for praise Detective Inspector Mark Vanzant and Detective Sergeant Sue Comisso who have both worked hard and diligently on the case. 

From articles published over the last decade or so there seems to be a strong resolve from police to see this case solved. OPP Sergeant and spokesperson for the force said he had seen the police files on the case in 2015. He said that the file boxes went from floor to ceiling and that over the years investigators had travelled throughout the country following leads. According to CTV news,  by 2010 18,000 interviews had been undertaken and many people had been questioned on several occasions. In 2017 there were still two detectives working on the case full time. 

Detective Inspector Chris Landry of OPP Criminal Investigation Branch was assigned to the case in 2019. In August 2020 he told the Simcoe news that he would not go into detail about any working theories the police might have but did infer that police continued with their assumption the attack was personal in nature rather than random. He also said that the person who committed this crime has told other people about what he did. This mirrored the thoughts of one of his predecessors, Detective Dave Robinson,  who said in 2015 that he believed that someone residing in Orillia knows what happened.

Emily Knight, the sister of Leah's friend Sarah, also believes the attack to be personal in nature and points to the fact that Lora’s baby son was left unharmed in the attack. Speaking to Simcoe County news in 2020 she said she believes the killer will have told someone about the attack and hopes a guilty conscience will one day compel someone to come forward. 

DI Chris Landry also confirmed that evidence found at the scene is being re-examined in line with developments in forensic technology. There is the possibility that DNA might yet solve this 

case.

Leah, was just 13 years old when she had her life taken from her in such an evil and violent way. The bubbly teenager was denied the opportunity to do all the things we take for granted. She would have been turning 46 in 2023 and we can only imagine what she would have become.

A $50,000 reward put up by the OPP is in place for information leading to the killer or killers of Leah Sousa being caught.

If you have any information about the murder of Leah Sousa and the attack on her mother Lora you can contact the OPP on 1888-310-1122 or crime stoppers on 1800 222 8477.